Some Arsenal fans still don’t get it but the at least the press have done a U turn on Giroud.

By Tony Attwood

7 reasons why Arsenal NEED to sell Giroud during transfer window

The Metro 17 May 2015:

Olivier Giroud running out of time to prove his worth to Arsenal

Evening Standard in April

Wenger Is Not The Only Problem – Why Arsenal Should Sell This Attacking Duo In The Summer

April 25, 2016 Soccer Souls

Arsenal Transfer News: Olivier Giroud Named in 9-Man Fire Sale

March 17 2016, Bleacher Report

If you had undertaken a poll among journalists about Olivier Giroud during much of last season you wouldn’t have got an answer because most of them think that a poll is someone from Poland. But if you’d ask people who call themselves Arsenal supporters without doubt some would have reflected the type of approach given above (which were chosen at random from thousands of negative comments about Giroud in March and April).

But now we have this…

For France Giroud is the hero. The Man of the Match indeed.

And what did Giroud make of it all? “It’s nice to be cheered but I’ll always have a good attitude on the pitch,” he said. “It’s never been a case of seeking revenge or trying to ‘prove people wrong’ for what happened in the past. Never. I always give everything for my team.”

Five years and 20 goals into his international career supporters of France have finally woken up to the fact that when you see what appears to be mindless gibberish written in the English press and hear it spouted on Match of the Day etc etc what you are getting is, by and large, mindless gibberish.

Of course it is possible that Giroud might not have got his chance this summer had not Karim Benzema been dropped as he continued to face allegations that he attempted to blackmail Mathieu Valbuena in relation to an extortion scam over a video containing scenes of a sexual nature.

But then again, Benzema has scored 27 goals in 81 games. Giroud 20 in 53. Those figures themselves don’t suggest that one is the saviour and the other a donkey, but that is how some in France have portrayed the players.

And so the camp followers latched on and booed Giroud each time his name was announced. Not particularly because they didn’t like him, but because they had got the notion that the manager didn’t like Benzema because of his Algerian heritage. Or maybe they had studied videos of the aaa and taken them as a blueprint for support rather than a dire warning of what the aaa get up to.

Giroud scored 24 goals for Arsenal last season, and was booed by people who seemed to be suggesting that Arsenal needed a 20 goal a season player which is an interesting perspective. And indeed he got those goals despite being dropped to the bench for two spells.

And once again, after being booed in the warm up to the Scotland game he scored twice. Then he scored the opening goal of the Euros.

So how come the media and their aaa allies could attack a 24 goal player who is lauded by the media (no less) for his performances for France?

As usual with both the media and the aaa it is their abject refusal to consider analysis and evidence that gives them the problem. Oliver Giroud is not a standard big number nine, with elbows out knocking defenders to the ground and leaving them with a bloody nose as he poked the ball in. Likewise he is not an Henry with amazing speed followed by a deadly finish. He is a player who works best when he has other players around him who distract the defence.

In France that means Dimitri Payet and Antoine Griezmann. With Arsenal it means Alexis, and when he was bursting with form, Theo, either side of him, and Mesut behind. It can also work with Iwobi, Campbell… the players who can turn it on in a trice and bemuse the defence. Then Giroud is deadly.

What makes this even more interesting is that Giroud’s statistics are by no means bad, even if you consider him just a number 9. His goal scoring record with Arsenal has been

Season

Total

Games

Goals

Percentage

2012–13

47

17

36.17%

2013–14

51

22

43.13%

2014–15

36

19

52.78%

2015–16

54

24

44.44%

Total

188

82

Yes if you were looking for a classic centre forward you could say he ought to score more. But when you consider that Alexis has scored 29 in 65 games at Arsenal, (44.61%) overall, compared with 39 in 88 when at Barcelona, (44.32%), it is self-evident that when Arsenal have both men playing injury free and on form, it is a very powerful combination. Each serves as a foil for the other and no defender quite knows what to do, other than kick the hell out of Alexis.

Hugo Lloris made a point akin to this relating to France saying Grioud “works so hard for the team, puts a lot of pressure on the opposition defence in the air, and other players can benefit from his hard work, like Antoine Griezmann against Albania. So we have been backing him from the beginning. And, for his confidence, it will have been good for him to score twice against Iceland.”

Indeed looking at the abuse Giroud gets we can understand why so many of the aaa announce that “you can prove anything with statistics”. The answer is “of course you can, but not if you use them properly”.

Here are Giroud’s stats at Arsenal….

Season

League

Cup

League Cup

Ch Lge

Ch Shd

Total

App

Goals

App

Goals

App

Goals

App

Goals

App

Goals

App

Goals

2012–13

34

11

4

2

2

2

7

2

47

17

2013–14

36

16

5

3

1

0

9

3

51

22

2014–15

27

14

5

3

0

0

3

1

1

1

36

19

2015–16

38

16

5

3

2

0

8

5

1

0

54

24

Total

135

57

19

11

5

2

27

11

2

1

188

82

If Arsenal were to buy a classic number nine (a sort of latter day Malcolm Macdonald), then the rest of the attacking approach by the club would have to change. If we ever found another Thierry Henry, then we’d need another Robert Pires to take up a position at deep lying centre forward when Henry went out onto the left wing. Each centre forward has a style that then demands a certain approach to play around him. It isn’t just Giroud – it is everyone.

Statistics are helpful and interesting, but a need also exists to understand the tactical approach underlying the situation.

Here are the latest comments on Giroud in the media. And as they say in examinations, “compare and contrast with those above.”

5 July 1865: a 2mph speed limit (3kph) is imposed on Britain’s roads for steam and petrol vehicles. Although this was withdraw later, it was reimposed on Britain’s motorways in the 21st century – not by law but by the fact that most of the time you simply can’t drive any faster because of the roadworks.

I’d loved to have heard the “camp followers” booing Giroud.
Would it have been; “ooh, boo, get you Olly ducky”?
Seriously though he’s have a great tournament, although he doesn’t seem to have endured much man handling of the type he gets in the PL.

Wife 2 : It was a disaster. My husband came home, ate his dinner in 3 minutes and fell asleep in 2 minutes. How was yours?

Wife 1 : Oh mine was amazing ! My husband came home and took me out for a romantic dinner. After dinner we walked for an hour. When we came home he lit the candles around the house. It was like a fairy tale !

At the same time, their husbands are talking at work..

Husband 1: How was your evening?

Husband 2: Great. I came home, dinner was on the table, I ate and fell asleep. What about you ?

Husband 1: It was horrible. I came home, there’s no dinner, they cut the electricity because I forgot to pay the bill; so I took her out for dinner which was so expensive that didn’t have money left for a cab or auto.We walked home which took an hour & when we got home I remembered there was no electricity so I had to light candles all over the house !!!!!!

MORAL: PRESENTATION DOES MATTER… NO MATTER WHAT THE REALITY IS !!!

“If you want to be Happy with your husband, Love him Less and Understand him more !

If you want to be Happy with your wife, Love her More & NEVER try to Understand her !”

The same applies to Arsenal – Love the team , support the guys with all your heart , don’t try to overthink tactics and selection too much ; and follow UA and joy will always be yours .

And for unbridled joy fuck ‘them’ and their stupid opinions , ignore the experts , don’t listen to the ex-players , the commentators and the media , and screw the PIGMOB, the FA , UEFA and FIFA .

If Arsenal were to buy a classic number nine (a sort of latter day Malcolm Macdonald), then the rest of the attacking approach by the club would have to change.

Conversely were the team to occasionally change it’s approach it is likely that Giroud would be more successful .Both of his goals against Iceland would not have happened for the Arsenal.For his first the ball was released early, no pretty 20 pass crab like approach and the second a free kick hoisted into the box from deep instead of a tap to one side . As with all arguments there are always two sides.

Too many supporters desperate for the club to throw money around, with the back up expectation that they’ll then berate the club if we end up buying one that that turns out to be a Torres (post Liverpoo!) or Benteke (Pre Liverpoo!).

They get so immersed in the knowledge that there are other CFs that are pretty consistently a step above OG on pure finishing (but usually far behind in team play and assists), that they forget that he’s still a very good player, and that with support (instead of abuse) he probably get better.

porter, fair point about style of play but that does also depend on the opposition and the officials. For us (especially in the PL) it’s very rare for Giroud (or any of our front players) to be allowed any space to run into and it’s even rarer for the marking defender not to rugby tackle Giroud to prevent him getting to the ball. He’s not very quick across the ground but having a CB hanging off your neck would make Bolt look mediocre.. 😀

Whether or not we buy a guaranteed first choice starter or we buy a back up, another body is needed and asano is not the answer (yet) perhaps changing to two up front (giroud and alexis? with walcott and campbell as back up?) could be the answer or an in form two wingers from alexis, walcott, campbell, chamberlain, gnabry, wellington, iwobi.

But what this summer has shown is that certain Arsenal players have played in their best positions for the country and proved that they can excel. The Arsenal players that have shone are Ospina, Koscielny, Chambers, Xhaka, Ramsey, Ozil, Alexis and Giroud even Campbell had a couple of good games in his proper role. That is 9 players That have had a good or outstanding summer. Add those to the ones that have rested up all summer and things are not all doom and gloom. When you look at the 2 teams we could field and the list of players that we would still leave out, I am not as concerned as some. Of course I want new additions but more importantly, I want to see our existing players considered in their better positions. I also hope for a better injury record. Here are two samples of teams we could field in different Formations putting players in what I believe is their best positions, have also accounted that jenkinson and Welbeck are injured plus szczesney, asano, macey, wellington and sanogo will go on loan.

You don’t have to be an expert, an idiot or an aaa to understand that Giroud played for nearly 4 months and 15 PL games without a single goal to his credit. Overall, during 21 games he scored a brace against Hull in the FAC replay and nothing more.

Those stats – not mentioned in the article – are the actual reasons behind the headlines Tony referred to. If we try to be honest; had Vardy, Kane or Aguero had such outrageously lengthy barren spells they would have been subjected to identical criticism all over the media, let alone unlimited schadenfreude in this site.

As for Ollie being a hero for France – shouldn’t we just wait until Thursday and then Sunday? Two goals against Iceland and one wrongfully allowed against Rumania and some good link-up play is not bad, but there are no “real” French heroes yet in this tournament.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve always liked Giroud for his attitude and work-rate, but sadly I still think he’s not capable of leading ANY team to EPL title.

Porter, I agree that we often miss opportunities because we don’t move the ball quickly enough but the chances are far less in the PL than in most other operations.
Add to this that many of the teams we play are happy with a draw against us (but hope for a win).
AW often states the we didn’t move the ball quickly enough ‘in transition’, but it’s not a simple thing to correct without becoming a long ball team (I know you’re not suggesting that).
Summary; yes it does need to be improved but it wouldn’t be as effective for us as it would be in another league/whatever…

When it comes to football I wish I wasn’t English, the shame of our lack of skill against Iceland never mind the result.

However proud to be Gooner with Arsene as manager.

Arsene the stubborn one, who doesn’t know what he is doing, doesn’t do tactics and is clueless about transfers. So I am reliable informed by those who only expertise at football management is utter failure.

As we know when one of the media bods claims that something is ‘exclusive’ to them what they mean is ‘It is so bad no one else wants it’.

Lets consider what they mean by;

‘Arsene the stubborn one’.

He refuses to obey the advice of failures.

‘he doesn’t know what he is doing.’

Means

‘We haven’t a clue what he is doing. because his knowledge of football is beyond our comprehension.’

‘doesn’t do tactics’

In plain English’

‘He doesn’t do English tactics like kick the player or kick the ball anywhere’.

‘clueless about transfers’

‘We have no idea why he buys the players he buys and for the most part we have never heard of them and this proves he hasn’t got a clue about player transfers.

BG (Before Giroud), whenever, on TV, Arsenal had a corner or set piece, I used to get up from my armchair and make a drink.
It became no longer the case after Olivier’s arrival.
He is the best attacking header of a ball we have had for decades and every dead ball put into the penalty area is now regarded with high anticipation.
I used to think that his weakness was the ball on the ground but last season he proved that on form, he could deal with any ball receiving his attention.
No central striker fails to have off days or even weeks and Giroud is no exception.
Nevertheless we have a great striker in him even if some of our supporters have yet to appreciate his worth.

No I am not suggesting long ball all of the time but it should be in the repertoire . I know I face the chance of being pilloried for this but standing on the North Bank you see the space , you see the runs and you see the opportunity spurned by not wishing to play the ball quickly. Our possession football stifles not only Giroud but Walcott also . No doubt someone will produce a mountain of stats to tell me that my eyes deceive me but then I don’t put too much faith in them . I never went to higher education because I was too busy playing football.
You say that Wenger often states that we needed to play the ball quicker but the word he omits is “forward”. I have said it before and repeat :- The only way to get round a packed deep lying defence is to get the ball wide at pace , get to the by line and turn the defenders so that they are facing their own goal. They don’t like it, they make mistakes , desperate tackles , give away free kicks and dare I say it penalties. If you don’t attack the box with speed , you won’t get them.

Those making a big issue out of Giroud’s goal drought, I think someone posted here that during that period he played quite a number of games as a sub, 7 or more I think. Yet that’s not taken into the equation by his detractors. Kane went for two and a half months last season (he needed an offside goal to break his drought from the previous season) without scoring a goal, playing every minute during that period, but we never heard the same criticism that’s leveled against Giroud used against Kane. Rooney went nine months I think in 2010 (13 successive games, not sure exact number of months, but it was that long 🙂 ) but bet noone even remembers that, because the media never made a big issue of it.

As Tony says, it is their refusal to acknowledge analysis and evidence that gives them the problem. I’d go further that it makes them look stupid. I would bet the same players swallow the crap Rooney/Kane/Ali/or every spud are world class blah blah blah, without question.

colario…spot on in every observation.
What Arsene needs is a season where injuries do not play such an important part in the clubs destiny.
We have the players to compete against any team and by all accounts Arsene is still in the market for another forward (Welbeck injury) and a central defender. I read (yes I know Im a pillock) in Le Grove that while Chelsea Man City and Unt managers were buying players, Arsene was commentating in France. The inference was that Arsene was not trying/caring about Arsenal.
Are these really Arsenal supporters? I cannot understand the dribble that these aaa people dream up!
As for Giroud…an Arsenal man through and through. For those of my age group, I remember a certain Daviv Price. Fantastic player who got on the wrong side of so called expert supporters and left the club. A sad day when a club like Arsenal has to tolerate hatred like that.

Tony
“Giroud scored 24 goals last season and was booed by people who think Arsenal need a 20 goals per season striker, which is an interesting perspective ”

That would be interesting indeed if it were true.
People who think Arsenal need a 20 goals per season striker consider the PL competition for this requirement and not the three other competitions Giroud took part in last season.

Giroud scored 16 goals in the league last season and if you consider the last four goals , 1 against Man City and 3 a against Villa , in so called garbage time – the last two games that had no impact on the league title – then most people might consider the cries for an upgrade justified.

Also if you consider other players in the same or similar wage bracket ( 100-150K per week), Giroud’s goals per minute stats aren’t very impressive either.

Higuain scored a goal every 83 minutes for Napoli, and Benzema at similar rate for Real Madrid.
I only bring these up because both were linked with Arsenal in the past.

Giroud’s goals per minutes output , which is probably one of the more telling statistics, is about 1 per 152 minutes played and if you consider Arsenal have the assist master in Mezut Ozil, that’s not very impressive.

Also, I don’t think Arsenal fans care what Giroud does or doesn’t do for France on the international stage, but they do care what he does when Arsenal are in the thick of it in January through April when he went missing.

“How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.”
― Marcus Aurelius.

“Whatever your passion is, keep doing it. Don’t waste time chasing after success or comparing yourself to others. Every flower blooms at a different pace. Excel at doing what your passion is and only focus on perfecting it. Eventually people will see what you are great at doing, and if you are truly great, success will come chasing after you.”
― Suzy Kassem,

The problem with Giroud is a according to the aaa is he’s not a 25-30 goal a season striker.
But when you point out he scored 24 goals last season.
They take a few days and decide that what they meant was he was not a 25-30 goals scorer in the Pl

I don’t think 11, 16, 14, 16 is “stats”. They are data. In this instance, they happen to be trials of the distribution of goal scoring by Giroud.

If you want a statistic, you need to do something with the data (other than regurgitate it). You could say the average is 14.25 or the median is 14. Another is that the median absolute deviation from 14 is 2.

You could try to make a prediction. Next season Giroud will score less than the median, the median or more than the median number of goals.

A prediction too many people want, is that next year Giroud will score 0 for Arsenal, because he will be gone.

@Tom Curious, how many of Higuain or Benzema’s goal were scored in garbage time or in games that didn’t affect…whatever. Sometimes we (I include myself, here) use skewed arguments precisely because we are so well informed about Arsenal but less so about other teams and their problems. I freely admit that I watch all the Arsenal matches but rarely more than 2 or 3 of other clubs’ games. This limits my ability to have a really good perspective of a number of things including how good other teams’ players really are because I only see them against us.

Giroud a fine team player. Works his socks off for the team. Fans keep saying bring in another forward. But never have they got a name as to who should come in and what is an acceptable price for the player. Never will you see that in any blog. Arsenal I believe should not even compare itself to Chelsea and Man city, they have a combined total of nine PL cups, we are at 13 and chasing Liverpool and Manchester united. The latter two have struggled despite spending millions. And they spend millions not even for PL glory but just to be among the elite in Europe and have miserably failed. If the fans supports the team relentlessly no matter who plays for Arsenal, the players would have had more spirit to go get things done. Instead players get a toxic vibe whether they read the paper, go on the internet, ride a subway back home, play in the Emirates stadium. Be a fan and stop pretending to be a pundit and you will enjoy the ups and downs of the team and who knows the unlikely player may end up getting 30-35 goals a season. COYG a new year is about to start.

Rooney is not and never has been world class, He has been a good player but not in the class of Cruyff, Maradona, Henry, Unfortunately the English of the so called golden generation always lacked the guile to be called truly world class. It is a titled bandied about far too easily.
Thank you for the education lesson Gord , I have to say I would not know a median if it hit me in the face . However on the subject of football all I was saying that his premier league return is not exactly overwhelming.

porter
smiles….a striker that once entered the UEFA team of the year isn’t a world class.ok we can say Uefa class….Lolz. now you even went ahead to give snide remarks to the English players (golden generations) and say they aren’t. wow,in case you’ve forgotten them…..Ashley Cole(rings a bell?) ,lampard(2nd best player in the world 2006),Beckham (3rd best in the world 1999),Steven gerard(deadliest attack partnership with Torres 2009 in the whole Europe )…..ohhh porter come off it.I don’t like English players much but I won’t deny them their talents if I see 1.

I think you read too much media , Gerrard good as a league player liked a long diagonal ball , Beckham good at free kicks and didn’t United play for them, not particularly quick and rarely took a player on. Lampard yes , good for Chelsea as was Cole , as for Rooney could have /should have maybe been a lot more but as a collective what did England win or get close to . ? Not much as I remember.

ohh….what they’ve won as a team.really? can you tell what Portugal has won as a team with the world best player in it? maybe you aren’t English and am not either.but it seems that you believe if you’re not in messi’s level then you aren’t world class.well you’re OYO(On Your Own) on that.

Whoever knew that a goal in the PL would be considered a garbage goal? What logic is that?? Didn’t those goals contribute to us pipping the spuds to second spot? Ok, they didn’t matter, so let’s take them away because they don’t count. So from now on we should discount things like top goalscorer, since some of those goals would have been scored in garbage games. In fact any fans who paid their hard-earned money to watch us play City and Villa should demand their money back, because they were garbage games. I’ll be writing to my TV package provider to demand some of my money back as they made me pay to watch garbage games….

This is ridiculous to say the least. What was that term again….,the one that was used to describe some sections of the medianot so long ago… yeah, concrete thinking…. it comes to mind. I know that it’s fashionable to knock Arsenal players amongst the aaaa, but this takes the biscuit.

Actually I an Englishman but that doesn’t make my opinion more or less valid. Messi yes world class but had the good fortune to have Iniesta and Xavi at club level but he has not won a lot at international level.The 5 English players you mentioned were all part of an unsuccessful team.Surely a team with so many so called worldies should have at least been in contention.

porter
you’re contradicting yourself. is messi less a world class just because of country honours? if no,then why slam the English players just because of international honours? giggs won loads at Manchester united.now is he less a world class just because he achieved nothing at all for wales? now if your answer is yes messi isn’t then am ‘off your back hands up’.

Porter – your reasoning is sound. There are not many world class English players at the moment. One player that stood out a few years ago was Paul Gascoigne. Gordon Banks was another. Beckham never stood out for me but he was a trier. Arsenal have had some amazing World class players as have many other clubs in EPL.

However, Spain has had the financial pull (legal or otherwise) to attract them & it is hard to compete with financial wealth.

Teams need a quality beyond individual class & the Euros are showing that more than ever before.

Sorry Adetunji your last sentence lost me.Messi and Ronaldo are single parts of their international teams .In their club teams surrounded by other good players and in Messi ‘s case other world class players they have been successful.

Although Barcelona recently the best Spanish team were supplemented by Neymar, Messi , Alves and Alexis I think most of the rest of the squad were Spanish and largely Catalan. Which is something that few English teams can boast.

Lolz…seriously? do you know how many world class players Argentina has at the moment? smiles…tell me 1 out of the players I mentioned that was not attracting big clubs during their time. Beckham was even 2nd twice in the world Rankings. if you were talking about d current English squad,then I’ll say none except Rooney has justified the world class tag.but those era,men they were full.now going into the national team is another thing entirely.that’s a collective effort of which the coaching crew are also part of the problems.

‘ If the fans supports the team relentlessly no matter who plays for Arsenal, the players would have had more spirit to go get things done.’
And …
‘Be a fan and stop pretending to be a pundit and you will enjoy the ups and downs of the team and who knows the unlikely player may end up getting 30-35 goals a season.’

So simple and true , which most of ‘them’ for some reason or another (?) don’t seem to get !

Giroud scores goals and does other things for the team. He gives his all for the team, whether France or Arsenal. He fights his hundred battles every match when playing for Arsenal – Arsene Wenger’s words.

It is very exciting that he is having such a good Euros, and whatever he says, it must be nice for him after all the undeserved stick he has received from so-called supporters of Arsenal and of France.

It is also exciting that Arsenal has four players in the semi-finals of the Euros, as well as the Copa America winner / winner of the award for best player of the tournament.

But just one correction – Rooney did get endless stick from the British press when he went on a goal drought. For some reason he is another player the British media like to pick on.